The Benefits of College Counseling

11/23/2015

Not only is the holiday season right around the corner, but it’s also an exciting time for high school seniors as the final deadline for college applications approaches. As seniors add the finishing touches to their last applications, they also have to maintain their academic performance and schedule college visits. How are they able to stay on track with School and take time to really consider what paths they should take after high school graduation? Many students would be lost without the help of the Kiski College Counseling Team.

Why College Counselors Are A Great Resource

Students who seek assistance from college counselors frequently have an advantage because they are tapping into a wealth of knowledge and experience. College counselors are a great resource for students considering higher education because they are professionals with years of matching students with colleges already behind them.

Counselors provide several services to foster and support students as they apply to schools including:

Assisting parents in understanding their role in the application and decision process

Preparing students academically for college

Influencing students in the decision-making process

Providing structure and organization during the entire process

For the boys and their families, the Kiski college counseling team provides information, asks the right questions, and makes students consider options they didn’t know they had. According to Jaye Beebe, the College Counseling Director at Kiski, the counselors know what the students need to consider that they may not have thought of yet. Part of the job is to make students look farther afield and escape their comfort zones.

The Kiski Advantage

Whereas at a public school where the efficiency of college counseling depends on the socioeconomic status of the school, Kiski provides reliable, consistent counseling services for each student. Where a public school might have one counselor to 800 students, Kiski has a team of three counselors to the 203 students enrolled at the School. At Kiski, additional resources and an effective student to counselor ratio have kids prepared as early as possible for the college application and enrollment process.

The college counseling team at Kiski gets to know their students really well. College counselors are also teachers and coaches, so they see the boys everyday and have the ability to make better matches for them when it comes to colleges. Our counselors aim to gain a better understanding of students' personalities and ambitions. These are much more likely to lead to the best match than school rankings alone.

The most memorable experiences for Beebe are when the students start the college selection process with one idea of what they want and end up at a totally different school than they originally thought. Beebe is frequently able to keep in touch with some of these students after graduation. One such student reached out and is having the time of his life.

“He’s having a ball! He’s happier than anybody can be,” Beebe said of his student.

Because the counselors at Kiski have the opportunity to learn more than just their students’ names and academic performance, they are able to help their boys find the best fit in a college. Kiski has a 100 percent college attendance rate and about 80 percent of students attend one of the top 100 institutions in the nation as ranked by the U.S. News.

Is your son on track with college applications? You can use this detailed timeline to find out!

Established in 1888, The Kiski School is one of the oldest, private, all-boys, college preparatory boarding schools in Pennsylvania and the United States. Home to 200 boys, Kiski offers an academically rigorous curriculum that includes AP and Honors courses, 12 varsity sports, and a community that allows boys to thrive through project-based learning and self-discovery. Kiski's beautiful, 350-acre campus is located in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, PA.